


side piece (dirty little secret)

by thatoneinsecurenerd



Series: driver's license [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Break Up, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Sort Of, Swearing, but not really, but not theirs, ventfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29885673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatoneinsecurenerd/pseuds/thatoneinsecurenerd
Summary: “Those thoughts I can't deny (Deny)These sleeping dogs won't lie (Won't lie)And all I've tried to hideIt's eating me apart”-Dirty Little Secret, The All-American Rejects***The pretty blond boy’s perspective duringDriver’s License(though you don’t have to read that first to understand this,I guess)
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Series: driver's license [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197323
Kudos: 11





	side piece (dirty little secret)

**Author's Note:**

> If you’ve read the previous part, you know whose breakup it is. And I should also say that whichever of the two partners you kin will determine whether the ending is happy or sad.
> 
> Rated T for swearing.

Janus Drake liked to keep to himself. Unfortunately, he also liked acting. Which meant that he took a theatre class and participated – in some way – in the high school’s bi-yearly shows. Which meant that he found himself surrounded by extroverts: people looking to welcome him into their large circle of other people. 

One such extrovert was Roman Prince, a talented actor who always snagged the lead opposite Janus’s villain. Janus only let him into his own one-man circle because it was convenient, that’s what he would tell anyone who asked. After all, it was good to be friends with the boy you needed to run lines with. There was no hassle getting someone’s number just to arrange a time and a place to meet, only to never see them again after. 

They became familiar with each other’s houses and families. Janus found himself getting closer to the theatre kids Roman always hung around during breaks during their rehearsals. 

And Janus knew that Roman had a boyfriend who wasn't in the theatre department. But Janus wasn’t interested in Roman beyond a friendship, no matter the boyfriend whose name never happened to come up around him, even though he’d seen the boy on Roman’s arm plenty of times in the drama classroom at lunch or at the end of every show with a box of cookies or a bouquet of red roses (Roman’s favorite). 

And Janus wasn’t stupid. He could tell when Roman was getting a little friendlier with him than a friendship usually entailed, at least according to Janus. 

Roman insisted it was that he was affectionate, when he took Janus’s hand when they were walking up the stairs to Roman’s room for a sleepover to run lines. Insisted that he was just fixing Janus’s hat hair every day before tech week rehearsals. Insisted that he was just paying Janus a compliment when he said he looked attractive in his full costume – every day before tech week rehearsals. Insisted that he wasn’t staring at Janus instead of the boyfriend that was no longer physically on his arm when they crossed paths during the school day, even though Janus had met his eyes plenty of times. 

And Janus wasn’t stupid. He knew that his close friendship with Roman was being kept a secret from the boyfriend. He knew that Roman did everything he could to not fuel any rumors, giving anyone who asked the same excuses he did Janus. 

Janus didn’t like feeling like someone’s dirty little secret, but he didn't want to come between the couple, either. (He’d have called them a happy couple, except neither of them appeared to be very happy. The boyfriend seemed to be catching on to what Roman was doing with Janus. Janus hoped the boyfriend didn’t think Janus was Roman’s side piece.) 

Janus _wasn’t_ the side piece. Not when he stopped questioning why Roman was being so touchy-feely – even when Roman started to get _more_ touchy-feely – and just fucking let it happen. When he started to return it: brushing Roman’s persistent cowlick out of his eyes, occasionally, when they hung out after rehearsal or during the weekend, smiling softly at him when they ran lines and Roman’s eyes got that gleeful spark in them because he knew he was killing it. 

And _oh god, Janus was falling in love with a taken boy, wasn’t he?_ He’d let this boy in too far. 

He started to deny it. Refused it. But he also let Roman continue to do his thing, because he knew it was the only way he would get the affection his heart was craving from the object of his affections. 

He let Roman take the lead in whatever the hell this was between them. Even as things began to perilously walk the line between romantic and platonic. And even though Roman had yet to break up with the boyfriend. He never even mentioned the boyfriend - just kept pushing him away - but Janus could see how this crushed the boyfriend. Janus waited for the day one of them would finally break it off. 

But not for his own selfish gain. For the happiness of the couple, since it was so clear to him that they hadn’t been happy in a long time. Not since Janus had let Roman get a lot closer. 

But Janus _wasn’t_ the side piece. 

He thought he might’ve liked the boyfriend well enough, if he’d ever formally been introduced to him. But he imagined the boyfriend hated him, that he was just too kind to say anything to his face. Or maybe the boyfriend was the jealous type, even though he seemed so saccharine on the outside, and that he might throw a fit if he ever thought – _caught on to the fact that_ \- Roman and Janus were anything other than co-stars. Or maybe he wouldn’t say anything at all about anything. Not if it would cost him Roman. 

But Janus cost him Roman, anyway. Roman came to him as soon as the couple finally broke it off. As soon as he’d finally gained the courage to call it off, because of whatever was keeping him so unhappy for so long. 

Janus held Roman while Roman talked about the whole encounter, relaying each piece of dialogue, noting the expressions on his old paramour’s face, and admitting to the guilt he felt at keeping it going for so long. For lying for so long. For pushing his now-ex away for so long. For falling in love with Janus and never telling any of them – not even himself, for the longest time. 

Janus hated to admit that he was quick to confess to the same. He’d say it was because he anticipated the way it would wash all of the worry lines off of Roman’s face, return the gleam to his eyes, and pull his lips up in the brightest smile. He’d deny that it had anything to do with the way Roman pulled him into a bone-crushing hug and Janus suddenly felt like he was on top of the moon. 

He could feel the ex-boyfriend's pained gaze on them when he and Roman passed him in the hall, Roman keeping his eyes glued to the floor as if that could erase the awkwardness and the pain. He knew everyone’s eyes were on them when he and Roman walked into the drama classroom together for lunch that next Monday. 

He knew rumors swirled among the theatre kids that Janus had caused the breakup. That he’d grown tired of being Roman’s side piece and gave him an ultimatum, and of course Roman had chosen him, when they appeared to have more in common than he and the ex-boyfriend did. 

And if they hadn’t figured it out before, the whole school came to know it when the ex-boyfriend never showed up to watch the next show. When, on the last night of show, Roman gifted him a bouquet of red roses ( _not_ Janus’s favorite) after the performance. 

When they seemed to fall into a relationship easily, because they’d already been teetering on the line between platonic and romantic for months and months. And so, Janus wasn’t perturbed when Roman asked him to prom. Dipped him and pressed a kiss to his lips when he accepted, like the dramatic extrovert he was. 

Because he was _Janus’s_ dramatic extrovert, anyway, and Janus loved him. 

And Janus _wasn’t_ the sidepiece. He was the only piece. 


End file.
